It's not entirely fair to put that on the viewer because we're purposefully creating a device that is meant to be provocative—and hopefully thought-p… - Penn Badgley

There are so many facets to the ways we learn about ourselves, and then therefore treat ourselves and others; the stories that young boys and girls learn about themselves, and the way that that translates into the ways they treat each other. We learn these lessons at home, we learn them on television and in movies and books.

I will say that honestly, as an actor ... As a person, I intellectualize plenty before and after, right? But really, as an actor during, I don't need to apply that same intellectual process because, first of all, when you play a character for this long, you just kind of know... It's very intuitive.

I certainly had the great bounty of drawing on my own experience, becoming a new biological parent, and that was quite natural.